Fifty Reasons
by Lynnie Kleriker
Summary: Fifty reasons why, Uchiha Sasuke must never fall in love with Haruno Sakura. Reason Ten: Orochimaru?
1. His Brother

**A/N: ****Just some basic information. This is an AU, and it takes place in our world. Teams 7, 8, and 10 are all freshmen, Team Gai all are sophomore, with the sensei's as mentors. Temari is a senior, Kankuro is a sophomore, and Gaara is a freshman. The Akatsuki, with the exception of Pein and Konan, are all Seniors. Pein and Konan are mentors as well as teachers.**

**My first Naruto fanfic as well, if that has any importance to anyone out there...**

**This fic will probably not have any couples really important to the plot in any way. Just one-sided Sasuke/Sakura. Still, if there's a couple you want a sentence or two about, feel free to propose it. It may end up here.  
**

* * *

**Fifty Reasons Why Uchiha Sasuke Must Never Fall in Love with Haruno Sakura**

Haruno Sakura was _not _stupid.

And when she said 'not stupid', she meant in all regards. People seemed to often confuse this, much to her displeasure. After all, such a smart girl would not be chasing after a man who didn't even give her the time of day, that man being Uchiha Sasuke.

This, of course, was where they were mistaken. Sakura, in all honesty, did _not _want Sasuke chasing after her in the slightest. In fact, Sakura only had one goal when it came to making Sasuke have any opinion on her what-so-ever.

Uchiha Sasuke must not, by any circumstances, fall in love with her.

And frankly, chasing after him all through elementary school did what Sakura thought was the trick. Sasuke liked girls with long hair? Sakura took the first opportunity she had to cut her waist length pink hair to her shoulders (The particular incident being a planned cat-fight between herself and a certain Yamanaka Ino, which reminded her, she still owed the blond girl a favor from oh so many years ago).

Her biggest success was becoming a _complete and utter _fangirl for him during grades one through five. In middle school, she had to admit, she had relaxed a little on the who "Make Uchiha Sasuke Never Fall in Love with Me" plan, all emphasized with capital letters, as Sakura was sure it was important enough for.

In middle school was also when things started to go downhill on her planning.

In middle school, their school had a program in it than ran through the joint high school. Students, in pods of three, were given a mentor teacher to help them organize their school lives and, in high school, prepare for college.

Sakura was fine ogling Sasuke from a far ways away, and squealing whenever he got near, so long as she was never in the same class as him. This meant she didn't have to keep her act on _every single minute _of _every single day._ In elementary school, Sakura got lucky, and she admitted it. It was very unlikely that she would never be placed in the same class as him.

In middle school, Sakura was placed into the same guidance group as Sasuke under the mentor Hatake Kakashi.

This, of course, meant she pretty much had to embarrass herself in front of the teacher she would, in all likelihood, have to keep through her entire middle school and high school career, on a daily basis, having to keep up an 'I love Sasuke' persona. At the same time, she had to explain to her close male friend, Naruto, why exactly she had to pretend to dislike him and find him annoying. Naruto understood, but Sakura still felt quite guilty about treating him so badly in front of Kakashi and Sasuke. She bought him a lot of ramen for coping the way he did.

Eventually, though, sometime between grade six and eight, Sakura stopped having the energy to fangirl over Sasuke, and eventually, the black haired boy began to tolerate her more and more. She even treated Naruto normally in front of Kakashi and Sasuke again. In fact, she began caring less and less about the Uchiha as days went by.

And now that she was going into the second half of her freshman year of high school, she had received some rather disturbing news. Apperently, the very man she had spent so many years trying desperately to make never fall in love with her, had done just that. Uchiha Sasuke had fallen in love with Haruno Sakura.

Now, this would've normally been good news for any girl. Any normal girl, at any rate. Sasuke was considered one of the school's 'hottest guys', but Sakura knew better than that. She'd known better than that since she was in kindergarten.

There were fifty good reasons why Uchiha Sasuke must never fall in love with Haruno Sakura.

* * *

**Reason One: His Brother**

Sakura closed her locker with a satisfying clink as the lock went into the locked position. She sighed, tucking her books to her chest. Ino would be here in about a minute or so to walk with her to English class. She sighed and rubbed her hands against her temples. She wished she had been given lockers closer to her friends, but instead she managed to get the locker the farthest away from anything and anyone.

Well, she was closer to the senior hallway than anyone else, but she didn't care too much about that. Apparently there was some gang around there. A-Cat-Sauce or whatever, Sakura couldn't remember. She did know that they were bad news, and that if they caught a freshman like her in senior hallway, they wouldn't hesitate to beat her up to within an inch of her life. Or at least, that's what they did to the last guy they caught around there. In truth, she wasn't quite sure what they'd do to a girl. On that same note, she didn't want to find out.

She looked up from her books to see everyone around her staring at something, or someone, standing in the middle of the hallway. She followed her gaze to see a man who looked suspiciously like Sasuke, only with longer hair standing beside a man with blue skin (A disorder?) and blue hair. They both appeared focused as they looked around the hallway.

Finally, Sasuke-lookalike spoke, "Which one of you is Sakura?" Sakura raised her hand slowly and both seniors approached the girl. The blue skinned one appeared uninterested and was looking around the remainder of the hallway. "I'm Itachi, and this is Kisame." He gestured to the blue skinned man. Sakura blinked, and then nearly whacked her head from her stupidity. Of course the Sasuke-lookalike would be Sasuke's brother! How she didn't figure this out earlier was beyond her.

She held out her hand, "I'm Sakura." She said.

"Yes. I know." And with that, Itachi stared at her.

Sakura nervously twiddled her thumbs. "Uh... Is there anything you need?" She asked hesitantly.

Itachi blinked, "Your hair is pink."

She sighed, "Yes."

And with that, Itachi and Kisame left the confused Sakura to return to, where Sakura assumed was, class.

_'What just happened?'_

---

Sakura couldn't shake the feeling that she just might be being watched.

In science class, she could've sworn she saw the bush outside the window move more than once. It wouldn't have normally been all too strange, but there was not enough wind to blow the leaves the sheer amount that they were. "Billboard Brow?" Ino poked her, "You've spaced out all class, are you all right?"

Sakura nodded, noticing the bush twitching _yet again. _She looked up, "I'm fine."

---

Similar things happened all morning to the 'Bush Incident'. In gym class it was the mats twitching. In English it was something in the shadows. Every class seemed to have something suspicious in it.

Thankfully, lunch arrived, which meant one thing in Konoha High, meetings with the mentors.

So here she sat, in Kakashi's office, with Naruto and Sasuke, waiting for their always late teacher to arrive.

She sat there fiddling nervously. She was sure someone was watching her, there had to be someone.

Naruto gave her a strange look, "Sakura? You all right?"

Sakura nearly jumped out of her seat, they had all been silent up to that point. "I'm fine... Really... Hey, do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?"

Naruto gave her a strange look and shook his head. "Are you sure you're all right?" He asked, laughing.

Before the pink haired girl got a chance to reply the door opened, revealing Ms. Shizune, the principal's assistant. "Er... Sasuke?"

He cocked an eyebrow, slouching onto his chair, "Your brother hasn't shown up for any classes today, but he hasn't been called in absent. Was he ill this morning?"

This being revealed would cause Sakura to want to whack herself in the head for stupidity for the second time in the day. Of course. Itachi had to be the one following her. Though why he was was a whole different story, one which Sakura would have to ask him about, if he showed himself at any time.

---

The rest of the day went about normally. Still, Sakura could practically sense Itachi following her around. The ball rang, indicating the end of class. Sakura rushed out of the classroom, hoping to catch Itachi before he managed to escape to stalk her from a new location.

Thankfully, she managed to run right into his chest.

He just stood there, Kisame right behind him a couple of steps. "I approve of you. Father will be happy to meet you." And with that, he walked away.

Sakura blinked. He stalked her all day just to approve of her?

She rubbed her temples. She could never date Sasuke, his brother was too psychotic.

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**A/N: So... It's done. Leave a review if interested, I suppose. Thanks for reading. Chapter two will hopefully be out soon?\**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, any character associated, and I make no money from my writings.  
**


	2. Naruto

**A/N: Ohwow. I was not expecting such a good turnout, seeing as I published at what, midnight? But thanks for all the reviews. Love you all~  
**

* * *

**Reason Two: Naruto**

It was a well enough known fact that Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke were rivals.

And, unfortunately for Sakura, this added to the reasons as to why her and Uchiha Sasuke must never, under any circumstances, date.

After all, Naruto was one of her very close friends. Sure, he was loud and annoying at times, but he had a good heart. Sakura appreciated that more than anything. Sure, Naruto might have also possible loved her, but she knew that as soon as Hinata had the courage to actually tell Naruto about how she felt, the two were sure to get together.

Anyhow, that was a whole different point. Now that Sasuke was infatuated with her as well, the two were sure to become more and more competitive over her, and while most girls might've found this flattering, Sakura knew it was only a matter of time before it became down right annoying.

Frankly, she wouldn't be even remotely surprised if she ended up not being able to speak to them for weeks.

---

Sakura closed her locker and leaned up against it, hoping that today wouldn't turn out the same way as yesterday's 'Itachi Incident.' She looked up. No seniors appeared to be in the hallway or anything. She breathed a sigh of relief, wondering for a second why she never met up with Ino at her locker. She supposed it had just become habit after a certain point.

"Sakura!" A voice called from down the hallway, followed by an orange blur shooting down it. Naruto caught up with her, and she looked down at his hands. He was carrying... flowers? That was... odd. "Sakura! I brought these for you!" He exclaimed, blushing.

Sakura blinked, that was strange. Naruto normally didn't bring her stuff. Heck, he could barely even remember his own lunch most days, forcing Sakura to buy him ramen from the cafeteria. "Oh! Uh... thanks?" She replied, taking the bouquet of, what appeared to be, flowers from the Principal's garden.

The blond replied with a smile before bolting back down the hallway.

Sakura shook her head, depositing the flowers in her locker. Whenever days started like this, it was not a good sign.

---

There had to be no class in the entire school as boring as freshman Math.

Yes, gym with Maito Gai might've been disturbing at times, but it wasn't boring at any time. Not with the teacher going off with rants about the 'Youthfullness of today's Youth'. Science with Orochimaru wasn't boring. Creepy? Yes. Not boring. All the other classes had at least one redeeming quality to it. Freshman Math did not.

It always started with the same thing, the teacher being late. Mr. Kakashi never seemed to bother showing up even close to the bell. Although, should one student even be a minute or so late, Kakashi seemed to be on class right on time to give the poor student a late slip. Many students, mainly Naruto, had tried numerous times to just show up fifteen minutes late, the normal time Kakashi showed up, and were all sent to detention by their suddenly on time teacher.

Even more unfortunate than this was the fact that one classroom wall was shared with the science classroom. Orochimaru didn't tolerate any noise coming from the neighboring classroom. He'd come over and scream at them, threatening detentions if the classroom got even loud in the slightest. As a result, all students sat in their seats, doing yesterday's homework, completely silent, while they waited for their chronically late teacher.

Sakura sat in a desk around the middle of the classroom. Ino had opted to sit with her friends, Chouji and Shikamaru, for this class, leaving Sakura alone.

Or at least, temporarily alone, as Sasuke sat down in the desk to her left, and Naruto sat down in the one to her right.

That wouldn't have been abnormal in the slightest, normally, except for the way they did it. It was almost as if they were racing for a spot beside her. She blinked, looking at both boys now sitting on either side of her.

"Hi Sakura." They both said in synchronization, glaring at each other. They both stood up and walked to either side of her desk, leaning on it while continuing glaring.

"I was here first, dope. Maybe you should find another seat?" Sasuke said.

Naruto shook his head, "Bastard, I was here way before you."

"Uh... guys? There are two desks, you know. You both can sit here..." Sakura tried explaining, she was promptly ignored.

The glare-off continued. Neither guy seemed even close to budging, until the unthinkable happened.

Suddenly, a guy bumped into Naruto's back, who, due to his concentration on glaring at Sasuke, topped over.

Some girls took photos, some gasped, and all boys were thanking every god and goddess alive that they weren't the ones involved.

For on January 17, 9:31AM, Uzumaki Naruto had the misfortune of tripping in such a way that his lips connected with the one and only, Uchiha Sasuke.

Almost immediately, both boys parted and began scraping off their tongues as quickly as humanly possible, running away to desks on the opposite sides of the classroom, cursing one another under their breaths.

Sakura bent over her desk and began laughing hysterically.

---

Sakura admitted, lunch time with their mentor had the slight potential to be awkward.

Naruto and Sasuke still refused to acknowledge one another's presence. They sat on opposite sides of her and simply stared at the wall, pretending they were anywhere and with anyone aside from the boy sitting to the other side of their pink haired peer.

Sometimes boys had such a flair for dramatics.

Kakashi entered the office and placed his Icha Icha Paradise book, something which Sakura was almost positive was pure porn, onto the desk. He looked at Sasuke, then at Naruto.

"Did something happen I should know about?" He asked. On cue, Sakura began laughing once again.

---

"Hey... Sakura." Sasuke said as the trio left the office. Eventually Kakashi had dropped the subject on what had happened between Sasuke and Naruto. They then went on to discuss boring things such as college and futures. In all honesty, Sakura had spaced out.

The pink haired girl turned her head towards Sasuke. "Yes?" She asked.

With that, the black haired boy shoved a red rose into her hands, not going unnoticed by the blond boy on her other side.

"Hey Bastard! What are you trying to do with _my _Sakura?" He shouted, giving Sasuke a shove.

"Your Sakura?" Sakura muttered under her breath, going unnoticed by the two boys.

"I was just giving her a flower _Dope." _Sasuke replied, giving a shove back to Naruto.

Naruto shoved Sasuke. Sasuke shoved Naruto. Then, Naruto threw a punch. That's when all hell broke loose.

It quickly turned into a fist fight, which Kakashi was forced out of his office to come break up.

Sakura sighed. This was a reason why she could never date Sasuke. It would cause too much tension between her and Naruto.

Sometimes, the pink haired girl wished Sasuke could see these reasons.

* * *

**A/N: Well, there's another chapter done. I'll be trying to update weekly to bi-weekly, but I'm fairly slow when it comes to writing, so it may take longer.**

**Reviews are loved~ Suggestions for reasons are also welcome, though I have a fair amount already decided. If I choose to use one of yours, I'll give you credit.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I make no profit from these writings.  
**


	3. Karin

**Reason 3: Karin**

The monotonous routine of the morning continued as it had the past couple of days.

Frankly, Sakura was fairly happy to have at least one consistency in her recently confusing life. She sighed and leaned up against her locker. She wondered why Ino always took so long to walk over to her locker. It was, after all, just down the hallway.

Sakura shrugged. Certain things were not worth pondering. She twiddled a lock of pink hair in her fingers. With yesterday's scenarios with Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura didn't want to really see either of them. It'd just be awkward.

She looked down at her books, reviewing yesterday class' work. She sighed, she really did understand all of this stuff, there was little to no point in really looking over it. She looked up, only in time to see, the bitch herself, Karin.

Now, there was only one person in the entire school (Not counting Gaara, him being a transfer student and all) with brighter hair than Sakura. This girl just happened to be standing right in front of her.

Karin, the president of Sasuke's fanclub. Karin, the girl who beat up a boy in the seventh grade for implying she was fat. Karin, the girl who hated Sakura ever since Sakura was put into the same guidance group as the very famous Uchiha Sasuke.

She tried hard to resist smacking her head against the locker. Some days, she just wished things would go back to the way they began.

Karin pushed her glasses up her face, glaring down at Sakura. "So I hear you've become Sasuke's _whore._" She spat out.

Sakura blinked before sighing. "Who said this?"

Karin nearly shrieked, "I don't care! What matters is Sasuke belongs to _me. _Understand? I don't want you anywhere near him!"

Sakura smirked slightly to herself, she couldn't resist, some people were just fun to rile up. "But Karin, how can I avoid him when he's in so many of my classes? And my guidance group?"

Karin this time did shriek, "I don't care! Stay away from him. I'm going to be the next Mrs. Uchiha! Not you, me. Understand?"

Sakura blinked. "Uh… Understood?" She said in a questioning tone, "But I can't keep him from doing whatever he wants to do…" She muttered under her breath.

Karin glared, "What was that last part?" She growled.

"I just said he could make his own choices on who he likes, is all…" She muttered again, looking down towards her books.

Karin glared, "You little whore. Don't think this is over." And with that, she walked away in a huff.

Ino walked over to Sakura, "What was that all about?" She asked.

Sakura nearly slammed her head against the locker for the second time.

---

"Oh _hell _no." Sasuke groaned, trying to ignore Karin, who was currently pressed up against him. "As if in middle school Sakura wasn't bad enough in guidance… Why do they follow me?"

Naruto paused for a second, wondering if Sasuke had said more than that in his entire life. "You should be happy. I'd have killed to have Sakura all over me." He mused aloud, twiddling his fingers.

Sakura stayed silent, trying to not attract too much attention. After all, this is what Karin wanted, and if it got her out of a potential argument, it was all worth it.

Kakashi walked into his office, and saw the other girl in there. "One of these things doesn't belong… Karin!" He called out. The mentioned girl turned around, "Shouldn't you be in Orochimaru's office?" He asked, walking around to the back of his desk, sitting down in the chair.

"I just couldn't resist cute little Sasuke!" She sang, cuddling up closer to Sasuke's side.

Sasuke's left eyebrow twitched.

Kakashi managed to stay calm throughout this entire thing, "I'm sorry, Karin, you'll have to go to your own group for this. I have none of your files or anything."

Karin glared at Kakashi, "That isn't fair! Why does that pink haired slut get to be in Sasuke's group?" She whined, crossing her arms.

Kakashi shook his head, "Language. Now please leave, or I'll have to escort you out."

Karin shrieked, "Pinky! Meet me after school at the front entrance. We need to settle this!"

Sakura slammed her head down onto the desk.

---

"You know, Forehead, you don't have to go." Ino reasoned, walking beside Sakura.

Sakura sighed, "Maybe she'll leave me along after this?" Sakura reasoned.

Ino shook her head, "It'll get worse, if anything. You know this."

"Well, maybe after this she'll leave me along…"

Ino sighed, "Fine, but I'm coming as backup."

Sakura smiled, "I wouldn't expect anything less."

---

Karin was already waiting once Sakura left the building. "Pinky! Over here!" She yelled, gesturing to her.

Sakura walked over, ready to face whatever Karin had in store for her.

Suddenly, though, a teacher approached Karin. Kakashi, Sakura easily recognized. "Not so fast, Karin. You have detention for a week for attempting to start a fight." He explained smoothly, "Please go to the library. I'm sure Shizune will be plenty nice to you." He turned to Sakura, "And I've very disappointed in you, you know better than to fight on campus. You should thank Sasuke for getting me to come out here, I thought it was an idle threat."

'_Sasuke was the one who was worried?'_

**---**

**A/N: ****Done cakes. Slightly late. Hope you all enjoyed! This is a suggestion taken from someone, sorry I am having trouble with remembering names. xD I'll credit you next chapter.**

**Reviews loved!~ Sorry for the shortness.**


	4. Fangirls In General

**A/N: ****Genjutsu is a store, like American Eagle. I use this to try to keep in more Naruto-y. **

**Reason Four: Fangirls (In General)**

Leaning against her locker, Sakura was. Boring, basic days of school, there were.

It really was a pity. School was supposed to be a fun filled place where learning took place. All right, that was a lie, school was supposed to be a place where people learned about various subjects while trying not to fall asleep in class.

However, these recent days Sakura realized were slowly becoming more and more… interesting seemed like the right word for it. A run in with the oh-so-famous Itachi, member of the notorious gang the Akasuki (Sakura mentally congratulated herself on actually remembering it's name), as well as awkward moments with Naruto and Karin alike.

She smiled to herself, it was slightly more amusing than normal activities, and she could admit that much.

However, this particular day seemed oddly normal. No one had approached her randomly or anything.

She soon realized she had spoken to soon, unfortunately, as she was flanked on every side by a pink, Genjutsu-wearing, sparkling pack of at least ten girls from her grade, including Karin.

Sakura took this time to ignore her pink her, her jeans from Genjutsu, and her sparkly belt.

"Hi Sa-kur-aaaa." They all cooed in unison.

Sakura's left eye twitched. "Hi…" She muttered, clenching her books tighter to her chest.

The leader of the pack stepped forward, or whom Sakura assumed was the leader. It was some brunette with her hair in a high ponytail. Surprisingly not Karin, she noted. Sakura didn't really recognize the leader.

"Sa-kuuur-aaaa…" She sang, "We've heard some things recently."

The rest of the fangirls all nodded in agreement. Sakura's left eye twitched once again.

She bit her lip, not being able to resist asking, "What… things would these be?" She asked.

The leader stepped closer, "We've heard that you've been very disturbing things about you and Sasuke." She said, twiddling a lock of hair framing her face. "We've heard you two have been getting _awfully _close for 'Just friends'" She explained, crossing her arms.

Sakura caught sight of Ino's blond hair a couple of lockers away. The blond girl certainly wasn't being very helpful, she noted. Rather, Ino was trying desperately to suppress her laughter at the sight of the surrounding fangirls.

The pink haired girl tried desperately to send some sort of eye message towards her blond friend to come and help, but the mentioned blond companion didn't really understand what she was trying to send.

Not that Sakura could blame her, blinking at someone rapidly would confuse most people.

The lead fangirl continued, "So what do you have to say to that?" She hissed.

Sakura pondered this for a second. It could be fun to antagonize the herd, but they did outnumber her. "The rumors aren't true." She said decisively, nodding.

Karin pushed herself through the pack, causing a blond girl to nearly fall down. "Really bitch? I have heard and _seen _some completely different things!"

"We _know _Sasuke gave you flowers!" Another hollered out.

Sakura blinked, had someone actually seen that besides Naruto? "Uh… Don't worry about that, Naruto already defended my honor." She replied, brushing a pink lock of hair behind her ear.

"Don't lie! We can tell when you're lying!" A small Asian girl called out. The rest of the herd nodded in agreement.

"We know you've been trying to seduce _our _Sasuke!" The head fangirl called out once again.

Sakura could see Ino literally crumple into a heap of laughter onto the hallway floor. Shikamaru and Chouji, her close friends and members of her guidance group, stared at her.

"I haven't been seducing him!" Sakura exclaimed, waving her hands in the air.

Of course, just as she said that, Kakashi just _had _to exit the math classroom, and had to hear everything she said there.

The leader whispered, "We'll finish this _later"_ before the entire heard scampered off, leaving Sakura to face a possibly awkward conversation with Kakashi.

Kakashi just rubbed his visible eye, "What are you kids doing these days…"

---

Lunch approached, which meant another counseling meeting with their guidance teachers.

However, Sakura found she couldn't quite make it to Kakashi's office, being once again blocked by hoards and hoards of fangirls.

Well, ten fangirls. It was still a fair amount of people, especially since Sakura was only one fairly small person. She sighed, and Kakashi's office was _just _down the hallway as well.

"Where do you think you're going?" The leader cooed.

Sakura sighed, "To Mr. Hatake's office, for guidance group, where you all should be." She explained in as few words as possible.

"You know _Sasuke _will be there." The leader hissed, grabbing onto Sakura's arm.

The pink haired girl nearly groaned, "Yes, I know. What do you think I'll do about this though? I can't control where he is or what he does." She finished.

The leader's voice seemed to escalade slightly, "I thought you said you were going to stay away from our Sasuke!"

"I can't exactly avoid him like that!" Sakura groaned, "He's in my classes, he's in my guidance group, there's only so much I can do!"

"I said stay away from him all together! I don't care if you have classes! Transfer out if you have to! I don't care!" She screeched.

However, this action caused none other than, the devil himself, Sasuke Uchiha to walk out of Kakashi's office and face the hoard of fangirls.

"SASUKE!" They all squealed. Sakura covered her ears. She caught glimpse of Sasuke's eyes, it looked like something he was about to do, or was doing, was paining him in some way.

"Ladies." He said, walking over. "I'm sure we can let our friend Sakura pass, can't we?" He grabbed the pink haired girls wrist and pulled her through the crowd.

"Oh… Oh of course Sasuke!" The leader squealed, "Anything! Of course!"

Sasuke flashed a smirk, "Well, that's all done then. Shouldn't you all get to guidance groups?"

The leader blushed, "Oh… of course!" And with that, they all scampered away.

Sakura blinked as she looked towards the black haired boy. He had just… saved her? She had no idea why he would've done this, why he would've bothered. It clearly annoyed him having to do this, did he really put Sakura above it all?

"Hey… thanks…" She said truthfully.

Sasuke nodded, "It was nothing."

---

**A/N: **** Late chapter, apologies. Reviews and suggestions for reasons loved! So… I think this may end up Sasuke/Sakura in the end, which means I lied earlier. Anyone like this option?**

**Thanks for all the reads/reviews/alerts/favorites… they inspire me to keep writing!**


	5. Tomatoes

**Reason 5: Tomatoes**

There weren't many foods that Sakura happened to hate.

However, that didn't mean that there were no foods she happened to hate. Celery bugged her unless it was smothered in peanut butter, fish tended to be just a little bit disgusting, though that was mainly the texture. No foods compared to the big one Sakura couldn't stand.

That food was none other than tomatoes.

Sakura hated tomatoes with every fiber in her body. She hated the taste of it, the smell of it, even the look of it. Hell, Sakura couldn't even eat pizza and pasta with tomato sauce on it she hated tomatoes so much.

Naruto thought that she was crazy for not eating pizza, but Sakura couldn't help it. The taste of tomatoes was far too strong. It was bad enough being around pizza, or tomatoes in general, the disgusting smell wafting off of them.

Besides, why the heck couldn't tomatoes decide whether to be a fruit or a vegetable! Sakura knew that technically they were fruits… but they did not belong in a fruit salad! Frankly, Sakura would've rather eaten her own hand than a fruit salad with tomatoes in it.

They also clashed with her hair color, but she had yet to tell anyone about that reason for disliking tomatoes, it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

That being said, unfortunately for Sakura, there was just one person in her life who liked tomatoes far too much.

---

Sakura leaned against her locker, being bored as usual. No fangirls were in sight, no creepy older brothers, and no Naruto. Everything was… normal. In fact, no one who could even remotely bother her, scare her, or yell at her to stay away from someone there was no possible way she could avoid.

She blinked, not really sure how to react to the situation. Just days ago she would've been fine having a completely normal day. But today? She just didn't know what to do, or how to do it.

Suddenly, Sakura felt something hit her foot. She looked down.

Red. Red like blood. Red like a fire. And with a green little leafy thing on top of it.

Sakura's eye twitched. It was none other than the most offensive shouldn't-have-the-right-to-call-itself-a-fruit fruit. She glared at it, trying to will it away with her mind.

Sadly, her mind powers weren't that evolved yet, and the damn red fruit demon wasn't exploding like she was hoping it would. Or at least disappearing without her having to, Kami forbid, touch the disgusting red thing. It probably was out to kill her, she was sure.

Sakura looked up to see Sasuke come running up and grabbing the offensive fruit off the ground. "Fell out of my lunch." He explained in as few words as possible before walking away.

Sakura's right eye twitched. Tomatoes…

---

Lunchtime, meaning meetings with the guidance groups, arrived all too quickly. Sakura ran late talking to Ino, and was trying to sprint to the office.

If she was late, Kakashi would be on time. It was an unwritten rule. Sasuke and Naruto knew about it as well, it was practically the first thing students learned once they had him for a teacher.

The clock was ticking down, and Sakura only had one minute to reach the classroom. She turned a corner and grabbed a wall, swinging herself into Kakashi's office.

Sakura wished someone had been in the hallway to witness her awesome ninja skills.

She sat down in one of the three chairs, between Sasuke and Naruto, before she caught sight of something.

It was red, it was round, and Sasuke was biting into it. Yes, it was the same evil tomato that attempted to assassinate her in the hallway earlier.

Tomato juice dripped down Sasuke's chin. It was positively disgusting. Sakura couldn't even muster up the stomach to eat her own lunch once she caught wind of that horrible, horrible smell.

She tried turning to Naruto, seeing him eating a package of instant Ramen, but it was no use. The fiendish red fruit was spreading its disgusting toxic air all over the room.

Sakura felt like she was going to puke.

Kakashi entered the room a couple of minutes late, not as bad as normal. "Sakura?" He said, seeing the pink haired girl bent down as she tried to suppress her urge to throw up. "You look a little ill, maybe you should go see the nurse?" He suggested.

Sakura frowned; she couldn't let the disgusting vegetable-fruit thing win. It would haunt her in her dreams if she did. "I'm fine…" She ground out.

Kakashi shrugged and sat down at his desk. "All right…" She droned out whatever Kakashi said after that, it wasn't really important anyways.

All that mattered was beating that cursed fruit thing.

She had a plan though; all she would do was ask Sasuke to avoid bringing tomatoes in the future, because they made her feel sick. It was foolproof! There was no way he could refuse if she made it sound all sweet and nice!

She smirked as Kakashi droned on; unaware of the strange stares she was receiving from Naruto and Sasuke.

---

"Hey… Sasuke?" Sakura poked the dark haired boy's shoulder.

He turned around to face her, but didn't provide any other acknowledgement of the face that he had just been poked.

Sakura sighed, "I was wondering… The smell of tomatoes makes me feel very ill, could you maybe avoid bringing them to group guidance?" She asked.

Sasuke blinked, "They're my favorite food." He explained, "I don't ask you not to bring sweets."

Sakura had to admit he had a point. It was stupid of him to have a point, but he did have one.

Her eye twitched. If he constantly had tomato breath, she couldn't kiss him. Meaning that she couldn't date him.

It was a valid reason after all…

---

**A/N: ****Done early. Wowza.****Psycho!Sakura is fun to write, I must say. **

**Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/alerts! Hope you enjoyed!**

**Reviews are still loved.**


	6. His Family In General

**Reason Six: His Family (In General)**

Now, Sakura usually got on parents' good sides when she met them.

After all, there wasn't a whole lot to hate about her. She was smart, she smiled a lot, and she generally was a very nice person.

However, Sakura was almost certain that Sasuke's family didn't like. After all, she did spend years 'Fangirling' over the raven-haired boy, and they would probably see her as desperate and annoying, even if she had improved.

And that was exactly why she was hoping the evening would never come.

---

_Earlier that day…_

Sakura leaned up against her locker. Perhaps she liked leaning against the metal structure because it gave her a sense of security. Possibly, it symbolized having a place to lean on when the entire world was in chaos around her, some sort of protector, in a sense.

Then again, sometimes a locker was just that, a locker. It was equally likely that Sakura leaned on the locker because she happened to be damn lazy in the mornings.

In fact, it was probably a ton more likely to be the last out of all of those options.

Moving on, Sakura leaned against the cold locker, twiddling a pencil in her hands. No one had approached her, which meant someone almost certainly was concealing a tomato from her. She suspiciously looked around; it could've been any one of them. Maybe Ino was going to walk up to her and hold up one of the devilish fruits.

She shook that thought out of her head. No one was going to bring a devil fruit. That happened yesterday, something else interesting was going to happen today. She began chewing idly on the end of her pencil.

Suddenly, Sasuke walked up to her. Sakura looked at him, "Hi."

He looked back, "Hi." He responded simply.

"…?" Sakura was tempted to try to initiate conversation, but she was still vaguely annoyed at him for having tomato breath the day before.

"…" Well, at the same time, it appeared that, anti-social as ever, Sasuke wasn't really going to do the extra work in starting a conversation.

And if she didn't start one, Sakura knew it was unlikely they would ever proceed from this point in time without it being extremely awkward, something she wanted to avoid as much as possible.

It wasn't as if awkward moments were always bad, it's just that with Sasuke they tended to escalade, and then they'd be stuck in a constant loop of more awkward and more awkward moments.

Then all hell would break loose, and Sakura didn't want that.

"Uhm… How are you?" She asked, hoping it would get their conversation started, and get Sasuke to say whatever he was going to say so she could go gossip with Ino before class began.

"My parents want to meet you." He said bluntly.

Sakura blinked. "All right… When?" She asked.

"Tonight, dinner, six o' clock. You know the address." He replied, and then walked away.

Sakura blinked, she could feel dread growing within her. Meeting his family meant meeting Itachi again, as well as the people who spawned Itachi. She shuddered; this was not a good thing.

---

Sadly, no matter how much Sakura willed the evening to not come, the universe didn't decide to obey her. Soon enough, it was five fifty, and Sakura found herself standing outside of the Uchiha residence, trying to figure out how their doorbell worked.

It wasn't like doorbells were supposed to be complex was the main thing that bothered her. But… there were two doorbells. Neither of them seemed to work when she pressed the button, so she tried sequences.

After about a minute Sakura gave up and knocked on the large door.

She waited there for a couple of minutes. Three minutes, to be exact, without anyone coming to the door. Suddenly, Sakura heard footsteps, and the door opened to reveal Itachi.

"What took so long?" Sakura asked, twiddling the black skirt she had put on in an attempt to seem more mature to Sasuke's parents.

"He said you were invited for six." Itachi said simply, leading the pink haired girl inside.

Sakura felt more doom impending. She somehow knew the evening would only get more and more strange.

Itachi led her down corridor after corridor, making Sakura really wonder how big the house was. They turned one more corner before Sakura saw the main room, complete with a fireplace and large screened TV. Sasuke was sitting on a couch.

"Pinky is here." Itachi said, pointing towards Sakura.

Sakura sighed; being called Pinky was always annoying. "Wait," She realized, "Why didn't you open the door when I knocked?"

"You were supposed to come at six." Sasuke explained.

Sakura was tempted to slam her head against the wall.

"Dinner!" An oddly chipper voice called from the other room.

It was time to meet the parents.

---

"Oh! You must be Sakura! Sasuke's little friend!" The chipper voice had come from Sasuke's mom, Mikoto. "Please, call me Mikoto. Not Mrs. Uchiha or any of that nonsense." She smiled, pulling Sakura into a tight hug.

Sakura was not really listening, instead trying to figure out how Mikoto would've spawned kids like Sasuke and Itachi.

"It's a pleasure, Mikoto…" She said, smiling.

"Oh! Fugaku will love you little darling! FUGAKU!" She called out, and a man with a striking resemblance to Itachi. Mikoto, on the other hand, looked a fair amount more like Sasuke.

Fugaku looked up and down Sakura. "You have pink hair." He said simply.

Sakura's eye twitched. She was getting flashbacks.

"Yes, yes I do." She replied.

Fugaku just continued staring, giving Sakura more déjà vu.

"All right! Let's all sit down for dinner then, shall we?" Mikoto exclaimed.

---

Now, eating in complete silence just tended to be slightly awkward.

And that was the situation that Sakura was currently thrust into.

Mikoto just sat there with a smile on her face, happily eating her spaghetti. Itachi was prodding at a meatball, and Sasuke was chewing on a bit of tomato in the sauce.

Thankfully, due to Sasuke probably telling Mikoto about Sakura's hate of tomatoes, her pasta had a white sauce on it.

Frankly, it was very tasty, but that didn't stop the entire atmosphere from being awkward.

Fugaku looked towards Sakura, "How fertile are you?"

Sakura choked on the current bite of pasta, "Uh… Pardon?" She said, hoping she had heard it wrong.

Fugaku looked dead serious. "How fertile are you? How many children can we expect you to produce?" He asked.

"Uh…" Sakura began feeling more and more uncomfortable, "I'm not sure?" She replied, twiddling her thumbs underneath the table.

"Well, how many children did your mother produce? How many cousins do you have on your father's side?" He asked. Shockingly, no one besides Sakura seemed at all uncomfortable with the current topic. They all were going about the same way as before.

"No siblings… but I have three cousins from my aunt on my dad's side?" She replied, though it came with a confused tone.

Fugaku continued his stare, "And what age have women in your family began menopause?"

At this point, Sakura was in the middle of drinking water, which she promptly began choking on as well. "Er… I don't know." She replied honestly. It just wasn't a topic she went into too often. Or… at all.

Fugaku's eyes bore down on her. "I think your approval is pending." He replied, receiving a nod from Itachi.

Sakura looked to her food, attempting to block everything else out.

---

"Er… Thanks for dinner!" Sakura said as Sasuke led her to the door.

"Father will warm up to you." Sasuke said simply.

Sakura nodded, opening the door and stepping out. "Uh… I look forward to it?"

The door closed behind her.

His family… there was nothing more to say on the matter.

---

**A/N: ****Wooot! It's a little early again. Hope you all enjoyed!**

**Thanks for all reviews, and remember, reviews inspire me to write! So, just take a few seconds out of your day to write one, even if it's small!**

**That being said, alerts and favorites also make me happy.**

**Suggestions for reasons are /very/ welcome. I only have about 24 more I've come up with on my own.**


	7. Ino

**A/N: ****This story passed fifty reviews. As such, this is the reward. Your reward is a very early update. Every 50 reviews something special will happen. For 100 reviews, the reviewer who is the 100****th**** will get a chapter here featuring a couple they like, excluding Sasuke and Sakura.**

**Oh, this chapter is less humor than normal, but hopefully still entertaining all the same.**

**Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians.**

**---**

**Reason Seven: Ino**

Now, Sakura knew for a fact that Ino was lying about not 'liking' Sasuke.

Well, at the very least she was pretty sure. Yes, she knew that the blond had, indeed, liked him when he they were all very young (Partially the reason for Ino being so willing to help Sakura destroy her chances of ever being able to date and/or become more than friends with Uchiha Sasuke, though the blond denied it at every moment).

However, recently (Not recently as in the last six days, as those had just flat out been crazy), and not so recently as well, Sakura had been noticing a couple of odd things that just might lead her to think that Ino might have a crush on Uchiha Sasuke.

Unless Sakura was mistaken, Ino went into a dreamy state whenever his name was mentioned.

She had tested it out, in fact, and she could almost prove it to boot.

The first time she tried this out was when Ino stumbled upon a topic Sakura didn't care too much to talk about. This topic was the mating patterns of cheetahs. How they got onto the topic actually made a fair amount of sense once it was laid out, but Sakura would rather not go down that particular memory again.

Anyhow, onto the main point, Sakura testing her hypothesis on Ino, she had immediately cut the blond girl off when she had began talking about what female cheetahs did to male cheetahs and said, "Hey, guess what Sasuke did the other day?"

And just like that, the blond girl seemed to go into an almost zombie state. "What did he do?" She had asked in a sort of dazed voice, and Sakura went on to spew nonsense about what she had eaten the night before for dinner.

Ino didn't even act like Sakura was talking.

So, it was because of this that Sakura was almost completely sure that Ino might've had a crush on Sasuke.

Besides, if Ino did have a crush, then it would give Sakura a very good reason to not date Sasuke as well.

After all, dating in general brought strain on friendships. Dating someone Ino had a crush on would bring more awkward moments than ever.

---

The beginning of the events which would inevitably explain why Ino might've liked Sasuke did not begin with Sakura leaning against her locker.

It was shocking, but this series of events ended up happening at Ino's house, sitting in a circle on the blond girl's floor with a bag of chips to one side and enough empty cans of diet soda to feed a family for a month.

For every Friday of every week, unless one of the girls happened to be on a date, Ino, Sakura, Hinata, and even Tenten, despite her being older than the previous three, (Tenten had actually been to the same daycare as the three others, and the friendship stuck, surprisingly. One might've thought that Tenten was sort of like a mentor to the other girls, telling them what being kissed felt like when they were younger, getting them into the older, more 'popular' things, things like that. However, this is all rambling and really doesn't matter ultimately.), would all gather in order to discuss the progression of the week. This would include discussing who liked whom, which teachers were psychotic, and having Tenten tell them all about what to ask each teacher to make them annoyed and embarrassed.

As such, they were all talking about various guys at the current moments, it being a normal action for their Friday nights.

Tenten leaned over the chip bag, looking Hinata straight in the eye, "I've heard from a certain someone that you--our innocent little Hinata has a crush on someone!" She sang, poking the purple haired girl's forehead.

The mentioned girl began blushing instantly, "I-I d-don't…" She whispered. At this point, both Sakura and Ino were also leaning over, anxious to see Tenten eventually get the information out of her. Of course, to all except for Naruto himself, it was obvious that Hinata was infatuated with the blond boy. This didn't mean the girls had ever acquired a formal acknowledgement of the infatuation from Hinata, and they tried every single week as well, each with Hinata giving 'hints' or changing the subject.

Tenten smirked; obviously she had something up her sleeves on this particular day. "Well, I have heard some information from a certain cousin of yours!" She gave an almost evil laugh when she saw Hinata's eyes widen, "That's right!" Tenten exclaimed, "Hyuuga Neji has provided me with the information on who our very own Hyuuga Hinata has a crush on!"

Tenten grabbed her hairbrush from her bag and held it to Hinata's mouth, as if it were a microphone, "So! Will the lovely Hinata admit to us about who she likes, a boy certain to go for her if he knew," Hinata smiled slightly once she heard the last of what Tenten said, "Or will she bail out once again and leave her darling friends in the darkness of this obvious infatuation?"

"C'mon Hina, tell us!" Ino exclaimed, grabbing a small handful of chips.

"Al-all right…" She muttered, "It's… Naruto." She practically whispered the last part, but it was loud enough for all the other girls to hear.

Ino jumped up, throwing her arms in the air and sending the handful of chips flying into random directions, "I knew it!" She squealed, high-fiving Sakura while doing a small victory dance, much to the purple haired girl's embarrassment.

"Naruto's my good friend, Hina, he'd totally go for you." Sakura said, putting a hand on Hinata's shoulder. Hinata blushed and hugged a pillow to her chest.

"Would… you help me?" Hinata asked.

Sakura smiled, "Help two of my good friends date each other happily? Totally. I'll talk to him for you." It was nice for her to _finally _admit to her crush, it gave Sakura permission to get the two together, after all.

"Speaking on other issues of the heart!" Sakura suddenly exclaimed, pointing her hand to the sky, "There is someone in here who has a crush on someone, _and isn't admitting it!" _Everyone made false shocked sounds, except Ino, Sakura noted, who looked very nervous suddenly.

"How could someone?" Tenten exclaimed, dramatically waving her arm, "We must get to the bottom of this, men!" She practically yelled before throwing whatever was in her hand (A hairbrush, this time), to the side. Then, she sat down quietly, "What other news do you have, sergeant?"

"Well! I do know that this person happens to have a crush on, wait for it, Uchiha Sasuke!" Sakura said, "Now, we all know that I go out of my way to make sure Sasuke doesn't like me, and Hinata has just admitted to liking Naruto, not Sasuke…" She elaborated, "Which means it is either you, Tenten, or Ino-pig!" She giggled.

"Can't be me, sergeant." Tenten replied, "I am happily single." She smiled, "Which means…"

At once, Sakura and Tenten both pointed at Ino, "I swear, it isn't me!" She replied.

"Oh really?" Sakura replied, "I've seen you go all dazed whenever his name is mentioned!"

"But…"

Tenten cut the blond girl off, "You know, now that she mentions it, I've seen you look at him the hallways as well…"

"You know, Ino-pig, I won't care if you do. I don't like him that way, after all." Sakura replied, "And it gives me another reason not to date him…" She muttered the last bit under her breath, and thankfully, no one seemed to take notice to it.

Ino bit her lip, "Fine… I like him." She admitted. "But… I know he likes you Sakura… Everyone knows."

Sakura smirked. This gave her another reason not to date Sasuke, after all. It would put a strain on their friendship, and friends often lasted longer than dating.

The pink haired girl smiled, if only Ino knew how much she was helping the cause of them not being together.

**---**

**A/N: ****Not really humor, but I couldn't think of a whole lot of humor with Ino as a reason.**

**I love my Tenten. She has no character depth, canon-wise, so I chose to portray her however I felt at that current moment.**

**Thanks for all the reviews! I'll update next weekend, most likely. Suggestions still welcome, and reviews will make me a very happy litter authoress.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I make no money from this.**


	8. He Wrote a Bad Song about Her

**Reason Eight: He Wrote a (Bad) Song About Her**

Today's events do not start off with our favorite pink haired girl.

That, and they don't start with the pink haired girl leaning against her locker. Although, knowing Sakura, she probably was leaning at her locker waiting for Ino to approach her or the bell to ring.

However, today's events do not start out with her. Rather, they start out with an unlikely duo working together in order to break into a certain Uchiha's locker in order to dig up some blackmail on the raven-haired boy.

This unlikely duo was none other than Tenten and Naruto.

Now, Tenten herself really didn't care too much about getting blackmail on the Uchiha. Really, she didn't really care what Sasuke did unless it directly affected her or one of her close friends. In fact, the brunette was just there for the sake of being allowed to break into a locker and steal some stuff. Having a real reason behind it was never much of a concern to Tenten, and some might go as far as to say the concept of stealing for a reason was foreign to the brunette.

On the other side there was Naruto. Unlike his brunette companion, Naruto actually had a reason for wanting to break into Sasuke's locker. The blond was planning something so cruel and despicable, it was almost out of character for the ramen lover.

Now, Naruto and Sasuke were friends, to a degree. Rivals more so, but friends, nonetheless, this, of course, being credited to Sasuke's inability to take to anyone without, pardon the language, coming off a complete prick, and Naruto's inability to shut up for more than three seconds. It was only because they were mildly friends that Naruto and Sasuke had actually hung out on the weekend, and hence, Naruto had discovered something.

As a typical emo kid, Sasuke carried around a messenger bag. What he stored in it beyond a wallet and a cell phone was beyond Naruto's understanding until the black haired boy had dropped his bag onto the ground, letting the contents spill out. That was when Naruto saw 'It'.

'It' was a song. More specifically, it was a song about Sakura. Even more specific than that, it was dreadfully written. Naruto wasn't very picky about anything's quality ever, so the fact that he could tell the song was horrible really did speak to the actual horribleness of the song.

Due to the "Kiss Incident", all capitalized, for like Sakura, the blond boy took a mild amount of joy in capitalizing the names of the important events of his life, Naruto had decided he had to get a small amount of revenge on Sasuke. No, it did not matter to Naruto that technically it hadn't been Sasuke's fault in the slightest; he still was determined to get revenge on the black haired boy.

"Codename Panda, the egg is away from the nest." Shikamaru's voice buzzed through the Walkie Talkie. Tenten's threatening to throw some knives at him if he refused to help had roped him into this entire mess. After all, the brunette had said they'd need some cover.

Tenten looked over to her blond accomplice. "All right, Codename Fox, it's time to initiate the attack!" She grabbed Naruto's wrist, dragging him over to locker twenty-seven. Unlike most of his peers, Sasuke had opted for a lock that required a key, not one of the dial ones. This, fortunately for Tenten, made it all the easier to break into it.

The brunette quickly pulled out a safety pin and a bobby pin, making quick work of the lock. "All done boss!" She exclaimed, running down the hallway. As previously stated, Tenten cared only about breaking into the locker physically. She wouldn't have cared if a dead body had been in there surrounded by a bunch of candles.

Naruto immediately began searching through the contents. The song had to be there somewhere. Sasuke wouldn't bring something like that with him to class, or even to wander through the halls. It would be too humiliating if it spilled out of his bag.

"This is so troublesome…" The voice muttered through the Walkie Talkie, "Hurry up Naruto." Naruto bit his lip, going into a folder.

And there it was.

Naruto smirked, running off with his prize. There was only one thing left to do now. It was time to show Sakura.

---

Sakura was physically incapable of not leaning against her locker when she was going to have something important happen in a few minutes.

As such, the pink haired girl was leaning against her locker at recess, an activity she didn't do too often. Normally at recess she was over at Ino's locker, or even Hinata's or Naruto's.

Sakura crossed her arms. Who would come visit her today? Would it be Ino? Naruto? Hinata?

The answer to her question came when Naruto came bolting towards her. "Sakura! Sakura!"

Now, when the blond was this hyper, it usually meant he required food. Ramen, to be specific, "Naruto… I don't have any money to buy you ramen… I have some cookies, if you nee-"

Naruto cut her off, passing her a piece of paper, "Give this to Sasuke for me! Please Sakura?" He asked, not listening to her response, "Thanks Sakura!" he exclaimed, running off.

"But…" Sakura tried to say, "You're in his next class and I'm not…"

---

Sakura was too lazy to go track Naruto or Sasuke down during recess, so she figured she'd give the piece of paper to Sasuke at lunchtime.

However, due to the fact that she was only human, and as such filled with curiosity, she had to take a peek at what was written on the piece of paper.

She opened it up, scanning the entire piece.

Oh _hell _no.

---

_Oh Sakura_

_Everything I do I'd do for you_

_Oh Sakura_

_You have beautiful green eyes_

_Sakura Sakura_

_You're very pretty_

_Oh Sakura_

_And you have pink hair_

_Sakura_

_I feel complete around you_

_Which I normally don't_

_Because I can't feel complete without you_

_Sakura_

_You looked pretty that once you wore that green sweater_

_And your hair was nice too_

_And I like you. I do._

_---_

Sakura's eye twitched. She couldn't make it any farther, out of fear for her brain combusting. It was so painful… Who would've written something that bad?

Then she remembered, Sasuke had written it.

This gave a damn good reason why she couldn't date him.

And when she got home, she was going to burn that page.

---

**A/N: ****Author has become addicted to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Author is off to play another five hours of it.**

**Peace out.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or earn any profit from this story.**


	9. Neji

**Reason Nine: Neji**

Now, Sakura was, by all means, a fairly understanding person. She knew how people could get in general.

This meant that, yes, she could understand how close friends could get as well. The last boy Sakura had dated had received a stern lecture from Ino, a couple of stern talks from Naruto, and a threat of castration from Tenten if the boy had so much as looked at Sakura the wrong way.

It was just something that friends did, and Sakura understood that. Well, at least as much as one could. Generally, it was polite of some one to make sure their friends did not go as far as to make someone be down right uncomfortable.

Now, on that note, despite Sasuke being a cold little emo kid, he did happen to have some friends, and none of them had approached Sakura yet. It was inevitable that they would approach her at some time, and some of them could down right frighten Sakura when they were in the right moods.

Unfortunately, Sakura woke up having a sneaking suspicion that this day would be the day his friends would approach her.

---

It felt down right _wrong _for Sakura to not lean against her locker when the chapter began, and as such, she was leaning against the metal contraption. Her life seemed to all rely on her doing this one simple action in the morning, and the pink haired girl had a suspicion that there would be a rip in the Space Time Continuum if she didn't do this action.

Sakura was having a little bit of a paranoid day. She was fairly certain she had forgotten to turn off her hair straightener, and as a result, she was finding every little thing to get nervous about.

Now, this all could've easily been avoided if Sakura had remembered that every morning she unplugs her hair straightener, but the pink haired girl probably had much better things to focus on than what she does with her hair styling tools.

She bit her lip, waiting for whatever was going to happen before class happen. Biting her lip had recently become a very, very bad habit for the pink haired girl, and more than once in the evening she had found herself with a very bloody set of lips. It was a habit that, hopefully, she'd get over once the fifty reasons she had spoken of stopped proving themselves, but at this point it was up to her to deal with it, for lack of better terms.

Sakura looked down at her books for a second, making sure she had the correct ones for her first class, before looking up to see that Neji was standing right in front of her.

Now, it was a well-known fact that Neji and Sasuke were friends. Unlikely as it seemed, seeing as both were arrogant as the sky was blue, they seemed to tolerate the other's company well enough. Sakura figured it had something to do with both of them being near heirs to companies. (Neji was beat out by Hinata, and Sasuke was beat out by Itachi.)

He stayed silent, saying nothing but examining her. Sakura got a strange amount of déjà vu. This happened to be very close to what Itachi did a while back…

Sakura resisted an urge to slam her head into the locker, making a mental note to talk to the school counselor about her urges to do so. There was really only one person alive who could really understand Neji, and Sakura happened to not be that person.

So while she was sure that Neji probably had something strange to do, she forced herself to wait for him to do it. Interrupting "The Great Neji", as Tenten sometimes called him, could end in disaster, according to Tenten and Hinata's testimony.

"Sasuke likes you." He finally said after a couple of minutes of silence.

Sakura nodded, "Yes… I've heard that."

Neji nodded, as if they managed to reach some giant breakthrough, "I'm sure you're aware what this means." He stated.

Sakura sighed, knowing she'd regret what she was about to say, "What does it mean, Neji?"

The Hyuuga flipped his low ponytail over his shoulder, "It means you have to be able to carry on the Uchiha line." He explained. Sakura reached into her bag desperately, trying to text Tenten to come rescue her, "And to do that, you must be strong. To prove yourself strong, you have to fight me."

Sakura's urges to slam her head against a locker and knock herself out grew stronger by the second. It would end this conversation, and maybe then Neji would leave her alone. Sakura only prayed Tenten would come save her from the force that was the Hyuuga boy.

Sakura also began to notice a fair amount of fellow freshmen had begun staring at her. After all, she had two attractive upper classmen approach her on two separate days. It was enough to get the gossip going, that much was obvious.

"I have to fight _you_?" Sakura asked, trying to make sure she had heard Neji correctly.

He nodded, "That is correct. I am a strong person, and to prove yourself worthy of dating Sasuke, you must defeat me in a fight."

Sakura wanted to snap, she wanted to kill something. Neji was nuts if he thought it was at all a fair fight! He was, what, almost a foot taller than her?

She sighed, taking some calming breaths. No, this time it was pushing it. She couldn't let this one go. He wanted her to fight him? So be it! If that's what she _had _to do to get him to leave her alone, then she would do it.

So, without another real thought, she glared at him as best she could, and tackled him to the ground.

Now, it's time to take a moment to think about the picture going on here; Sakura, a brainy student, and tackled the one and only Neji Hyuuga, a guy whose strength could've put him into the Akatsuki gang if he felt like it, to the ground, this all being followed by Sakura punching him repeatedly in the chest. (To her credit, the pent up rage from the last couple of days was bound to make her snap sometime. Neji just happened to be the last straw.)

Then, of course, Tenten having just received Sakura's text message had rushed over, her being one of the people who could deal with Neji generally, and was currently laughing her ass off as a girl pummeled her friend.

Now, teachers were quick to split it up, and just as quick to go phone Sakura's parents and give her more than a few detentions, but her message had come across. You didn't mess with Sakura, and she could easily snap at any moment.

That, or that Tenten was down right uncaring at times and would laugh at one of her friends beating up another.

Either way, Sakura couldn't date Sasuke, his best friend was a psycho, and he was weak. After all, Sakura beat him up without too much effort.

---

**A/N: ****Okay, so this is late, and I apologize for that. I've been /very/ hooked on Kingdom Hearts. Also, I feel it's necessary to note that, yes, I do know Neji's only about 10cm taller than Sakura, but saying a foot seemed better. Also, it's worth noting that I am Canadian, it just seemed easier to use American terms.**

**Thanks for all the reviews! Remember, reviews make Lynnie a /very/ happy little author, and more likely to update quickly. So, you know, review and let me know what you think…**

**Now, my advice for all of you, listen to some music from the 40s. Avoid all of the foolish pop music, or metal music, or rock… or any of that stuff! Time for good ol' forties music!**

**Now, Happy Halloween, and shouldn't you all be outside?**


	10. Orochimaru

**A/N: (Because I do require one right here)**

**So, I am so so so sorry for the late update! It's been an unholy combination of school, lack of inspiration, drama, personal project (It's another school thing), Russian lessons, and various other things that have prevented me from updating for a while. Either way, I do hope you enjoy. To the person who is getting her requested chapter, I will put that as the next one~**

**Reason Ten: Orochimaru?**

Now, Sakura was almost certain everyone had noticed that a certain science teacher had his eyes glued to Sasuke every time they had science class together.

Heck, if it wasn't for Orochimaru's counseling group being full, Sakura was certain the teacher would have requested for Sasuke to be placed into his group. Sakura herself wasn't quite sure what Orochimaru saw in the black haired boy, he wasn't even that good at science. According to what Tenten had reported, Orochimaru had also leered over Itachi, despite him not really caring about science either.

Regardless of what Orochimaru's intentions were, whether he felt a weird father son relationship to the Uchihas, (Which really wouldn't make a single droplet of sense. From what Neji had told Tenten, Orochimaru hadn't known the Uchiha's at all before they entered the school.)

When Sakura woke up in the morning, she had instantly decided that today would be the day Orochimaru would act creepy towards her in relation to Sasuke. It had to be today! In fact, she just really wanted to get it out of the way. Orochimaru scared everyone more than anyone had the right to, and Sakura really didn't want to have to deal with his crap later on.

Besides, she'd get in far more trouble for beating up a teacher than she did for beating up Neji…

---

This morning was too important for leaning against her locker while waiting for Ino.

Sakura was even debating capitalizing all the letters of the title for today once she chose to dub it. Hmm… "Get Orochimaru's Creepy-ness out of the Way" seemed like a good name for the plan, at least for the time being. Sakura could always consult with her friends to get a better name. After all, her current name for the plan was only good as a temporary name, and it would suck in the long run.

So, due to the fact that the morning was designed to provoke Orochimaru into getting over whatever Sasuke obsession provoked thing he'd do to Sakura, Sakura was lurking outside of the science room.

Generally speaking, lurking outside of the science room was not a good idea. Orochimaru in the mornings before he had his coffee was quite dangerous. He had a habit of bringing fragile equipment to clean, despite being half asleep, and if students weren't careful, he'd bump into them and shatter the containers holding the dangerous chemicals, which would ultimately result in the hallway being closed down and more detentions for whoever bumped into the science teacher.

Sakura stood there, waiting for the psychotic teacher to exit the classroom.

…

…

…?

He didn't appear to be exiting his room. Sakura looked into the room, only to see Orochimaru just… sitting there. He wasn't doing anything! Well, grading some labs, maybe, but nothing evil or cruel or anything!

Sakura bit her lip and ducked back into the hall. No, she wouldn't let Orochimaru get the best of her! After all, Sakura had a feeling she had at least forty more days (Not counting weekends, of course), of all the reasons she had chosen not to date Sasuke appearing and making themselves even more extreme than before, and Sakura refused to leave the especially painful ones until last.

The fangirls had been evil, Karin had been insane, his family had made her uncomfortable, the song had been terrible, and the tomatoes… Oh dear god, the tomatoes. But all of those didn't matter! Orochimaru had them beat in all this regards. He was the ultimate in reasons!

And, as she had mentioned before, Sakura _refused _to leave the worst until last. It was a band-aid she had to rip off.

Sakura peeked into the classroom again. Damn it! Why did Orochimaru have to pick _this _morning out of them all to act temporarily sane? The pink haired girl knew that if she didn't get this done, it'd be on her mind all day. Yes, it had to be done. Sakura had hoped it wouldn't come down to this, but it seemed to be the only option.

Sakura would have to go and provoke her teacher. She took a deep breath. A small, little, girl would have to provoke her creepy and slightly homicidal teacher. What had the world come to?

It'd be simple enough. All Sakura had to do was go knock some chemicals down and Orochimaru would go into a rage that would blind the weak! It'd get whatever creepy Sasuke urges he had out of the way, most importantly, which was what Sakura was currently focusing on.

And without any more hesitation, as that would probably cause her to chicken out and force this unfortunate event to happen sometime else, Sakura entered the room.

All right, step one complete.

Orochimaru looked up for a second, only to look down at the unmarked paper below him again, "Sakura, nice to see you. Did you forget your textbook here again?"

Sakura blinked. This was _not _how her teacher was supposed to act. The mere act of him acting so… normal was almost enough to cause the pink haired girl to run screaming from the room before retreating thousands of miles away (Or, at a minimum, to her room where she could hide under her covers and cry just a little bit).

Sakura took a deep breath, "Uh… Yes! Yes I did!" It was a perfect cover! She could just inconspicuously look for her textbook and accidentally knock over something of value! The hotplates seemed like a good option, Sakura noted.

"I'm afraid I haven't seen it, but feel free to look around." Orochimaru replied, waving a hand before focusing completely on marking once again.

Sakura took a deep breath. Show time.

She walked to one of the counters, the one with the hotplates, and examined it. There was a textbook there, though Sakura was certain it wasn't her own. Her textbook was, of course, stored safely in her locker. Or... or was it? Sakura had a moment of panic wash over her. She did have habit of forgetting her textbook, after all…

Without another thought, Sakura grabbed the textbook carelessly to check for her name, unfortunately knocking over an expensive group of test tubes.

She froze.

Sakura had meant to knock over the hotplates, not the test tubes! The hotplates were cheap things, but the test tubes were expensive. She really hadn't meant to knock those over!

And even more unfortunately, Orochimaru was over there in less than a second, checking the damage.

Sakura would later blame it on the stress of the past days, and the shock of having knocked over expensive equipment, but for the time being, all Sakura could go was start apologizing hysterically.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! Please forgive me! I didn't mean to!" Tears had begun to well up in her eyes, and Sakura couldn't seem to control a constant stream of apologies coming out of her mouth.

Orochimaru looked up for a second, and Sakura knew it would be the moment he'd snap and show his true insanity.

Of course, seeing as the universe didn't seem to like Sakura very much, he did the exact opposite. "It's all right, Sakura, it was an accident." He paused, "We can always order some new ones."

That was when Sakura snapped.

Because, of course, she knew Orochimaru had to snap at her, and he simply… wasn't. It was throwing the poor pink haired girl into extreme amounts of stress.

"JUST DO WHATEVER HORRIBLE REVENGE YOU'RE PLANNING AND GET IT OVER WITH!" Sakura wailed, earning more than a few confused glances from the people passing by the hallways.

Orochimaru stood up, giving the pink haired girl a concerned glance. "Sakura, are you feeling all right?" Sakura shook her head. The stress was just unbearable! She knew something bad would happen, it was just a matter of waiting, "Maybe you should go to the nurse's office, or phone home."

Sakura nodded, wiping a tear from her eye. "I… think that would be best." She replied, walking out of the room, "I'm sorry!"

---

It had been a somewhat success, Sakura mused as she sat in the school office, waiting for her mom to come pick her up. She did get a reaction out of Orochimaru, and he didn't end up murdering her! That was a win if Sakura ever did see one.

She smiled to herself, leaning against the wall, until the thought popped into her head.

Where did she put her textbook anyways?

**---**

**A/N: Again, so sorry for the late update. I'll try to get them out quicker, I promise.**

**Thanks for reviewers, and please leave a review! I do enjoy getting them a lot, they inspire me to write~**

**Thanks and sorry to everyone!~**


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